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In our latest Liberty Update, we highlight the benefits of the Trump Administration’s deregulation effort, both pre-pandemic and going forward, and how a budding effort among Congressional leftists to impose a moratorium on business mergers would severely undermine that effort. Rasmussen Reports brings excellent news in that regard, as large majorities of Americans agree with Trump rather than hyper-regulatory leftists:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey shows that 58% of likely U.S. voters approve of Trump’s decision to temporarily limit government regulation of small businesses to help them bounce back. Just 26% are opposed, while 17% are undecided.”

Sadly but perhaps predictably, those on the left stubbornly disagree:

The president’s action has triggered criticism from some. While 70% of Republicans and 59% of voters not affiliated with either major party agree with the decision to temporarily limit government regulation of small businesses, just 44% of Democrats share that view.”

Nevertheless, this is welcome news, as Americans maintain faith in what gave us the strongest economy in human history when the coronavirus pandemic suddenly hit – deregulation and letting America’s free market forces work.

Socialized medicine advocates curiously but persistently suggest that European models offer a superior alternative to the American healthcare system that relies more on private market forces and strong intellectual property rights. Gallup offers an important corrective, even if unintentionally. Whereas the percentage of Americans rating their healthcare as positive has remained within a high 76% to 83% window for years, Europeans consistently rate their healthcare satisfaction substantially lower, with only Germany matching American satisfaction levels:

Germany: 84% approve/15% disapprove

United Kingdom: 76% approve/22% disapprove

France: 74% approve/25% disapprove

Spain: 68% approve/31% disapprove

Italy: 51% approve/487% disapprove

That’s important to remember as calls for socialized medicine become louder amid the coronavirus pandemic and as November elections approach.

We recently highlighted how the Trump Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the leadership of Chairman Ajit Pai did Americans a favor in repealing the 2015 Obama FCC “Net Neutrality” regulation that treated internet service as a public utility. That Obama FCC effort needlessly reversed the “light-touch” regulatory approach that prevailed from 1996 through 2015, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, and which had allowed the internet to become the most quickly transformative innovation in human history. In contrast, after the Obama FCC “Net Neutrality” order, private broadband investment fell for the first time ever outside of a recession.

And now, amid the sudden coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, Americans can be grateful for Chairman Pai’s leadership on that issue because the U.S. has more smoothly accommodated the suddenly higher internet burdens than our European counterparts, who more broadly adhere to the heavy-regulatory Obama FCC “Net Neutrality” approach. In that vein, former Clinton Administration Undersecretary of Commerce Ev Ehrlich emphasizes precisely that point in today’s Wall Street Journal:

I was Undersecretary of Commerce during the Clinton Administration when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 passed. That law produced some of the best and most affordable broadband in the world. Our networks are performing much better than those in Europe, Australia and India because we created a deregulatory regime to allow different technologies – cable, fiber, mobile – to compete against one another. As a result, 95% of Americans today have high-speed broadband available and 80% have access to gigabit speeds.”

Bipartisan consensus is rare in today’s charged political culture, but it’s nice to see a former Clinton Administration official confirm the point – a “light-touch” regulatory approach to internet service has benefited America vis-a-vis the suffocating regulatory approach favored by leftist partisan activists, Europe and the Obama Administration. For that we should also thank the current FCC under Chairman Pai.